Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 is a SPARTAN-II commando of the UNSC Naval Special Warfare Command who became one of the most important UNSC heroes during the Human-Covenant War. With nearly thirty years of active duty, he has become one of the most decorated war veterans in the United Nations Space Command, earning every known UNSC medal except the Prisoner of War Medallion.
This thread will be divided into the following categories:
- Accolades
- Training
- Service Record/Accomplishments
- Speed/Reactions
- Strength
- Physicals/Augmentation
- Durability
- MJOLNIR Armor
- Gear
- Miscellaneous
For easy use viewing this thread and going straight to certain sections, you can use the buttons Ctrl + F to search for specific words such as "Strength" or "MJOLNIR Armor" and then you should be able to quickly go to the section of your choice without having to scroll through the whole thread.
Accolades
Master Chief is "arguably the most pivotal and important figure of the human race":
Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 is arguably the most pivotal and important figure of the humanrace in the mid-26th century.
Source: http://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/universe/characters/master-chief-john-117?lc=1033
Master Chief, as a Spartan-II, was part of the most elite fighting in the known galaxy and was humanity's only hope for survival against the Covenant:
-- Halo: The Fall of Reach, Bootcamp Issue #01
During the events of the first Halo game and the novel, Halo: The Flood, Master Chief was "easily" the best soldier aboard the Pillar of Autumn:
-- Halo Combat Evolved Game Manual
Chief has a tenacity that has been molded by a lifetime of conscripted military training and is proficient in all current ballistic weapons and tactics (as of the events in Halo 2), incursions and unarmed combat and has extensive experience with Covenant military tech (credit to Dottiestmoon):
Spartan 117, the Master Chief, is a member of the Spartan-II project. He is a genetically, biologically, and technically enhanced fighting unit, standing seven feet tall and weighing half a ton in his armor.
His reflexes are unmatched, his strength and endurance quite unlike any other human and his tenacity molded by a lifetime of conscripted military training. The Master Chief is proficient in all current ballistic weapons and tactics, incursion, and unarmed combat, and has extensive experience with Covenant military tech.
-- Halo 2 Game Manual
Master Chief is an "unparalleled specimen of human strength, speed, agility, and courage":
-- Halo 4 Field Guide
During Dr. Halsey's interrogation in Halo 4, she claims that her Spartans were all that stood between humanity and extinction during the war with the Covenant:
Interrogator: "Dr. Halsey, you're bending history for your own favor, and you know it. You developed the Spartans to crush human rebellion, not to fight the Covenant."
Halsey: "When one human world after another fell, when my Spartans were all that stood between humanity and extinction, nobody was concerned about why they were originally built."
Source: Halo 4
Training
Only six years old, Chief was expected to do one hundred jumping jacks, one hundred sit ups, deep squats, knee bends, and leg lifts. The kids, along with Chief, were expected to complete all of these without any breaks or stopping, for if they did, they would get hit by the baton. Chief continued to finish these workouts even after throwing up and getting hit with a baton:
"Jumping jacks!" Mendez shouted. "Count off to one hundred. Ready, go." The officer started the exercise and John followed his lead.
One boy refused----for a split-second. An instructor was on him instantly. The baton whipped into the boy's stomach. The kid doubled over. "Get with the program, boot," the trainer snarled. The boy uncurled and started jumping.
John had never done so many jumping jacks in his life. His arms and stomach and legs burned. Sweat trickled down his back.
"Ninety-eight----99----100." Mendez paused. He drew in a deep breath. "Sit-ups!" He dropped into the grass. "Count off to one hundred. No slacking."
John threw himself on the ground.
"The first crewman who quits," Mendez said, "gets to run around the compound twice----and then comes back here and does two hundred sit ups. Ready . . . count off! One . . . two . . . three. . . ."
Deep squats followed. Then knee bends.
John threw up, but that didn't buy him any respite. A trainer descended on him after a few seconds. John rolled back over and continued.
"Leg lifts." Mendez continued like he was a machine. As if they all were machines.
John couldn't go on----but he knew he'd get the baton again if he stopped. He tried; he had to move. His legs trembled and only sluggishly responded.
"Rest," Mendez finally called. "Trainers: get the water."
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
The kids then had to go on a long run over the course of a river, a bridge, a runway for jets, and then over a long stone path:
"A good start, trainees," Mendez told them. "Now we run. On your feet!"
The trainers brandished their batons and herded the trainees along. They jogged down a gravel path through the compound, past more cinderblock barracks. The run seemed to go on forever----they ran alongside a river, over a bridge, then by the edge of a runway where jets took off straight into the air. Once past the runway, Mendez led them on a zigzagging path of stone.
John wanted to think about what happened, how he got here, and what was going to happen next . . . but he couldn't think straight. All he could feel was the blood pounding through him, the ache in his muscles, and hunger.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
After running another two miles, John and the other trainees were expected to run a drill where all members of their four man team had to ring a bell on top of twenty meter tall poles,come back down and run across the finish line before the other teams. The first time through, John finishes first:
The "short run" turned into two miles. And the playground was like nothing John had ever seen. It was a forest of twenty-meter tall poles. Rope cargo nets and bridges stretched between the poles; they swayed, crossed and crisscrossed one another, a maze suspended in the air. There were slide poles and knotted climbing ropes. There were ropes looped through pulleys and tied to baskets that looked sturdy enough to hoist a person.
[...]
"Today's game," Mendez explained, "is called 'Ring the Bell.'" He pointed to the tallest pole on the playground. It stood an additional ten meters above the others and had a steel slide pole next to it. Hung at the very top of that pole was a brass bell.
"There are many ways to get to the bell," he told them. "I leave it up to each team to find their own way. When every member of your team has rung the bell, you are to get groundside double time and run back here across the finish line."
[...]
John ran through the pack of children and scrambled up a cargo net onto a platform. He raced across the bridge----jumped onto the next platform, just in time. The bridge flipped and sent five others into the water below.
He paused at the rope tied to the large basket. It ran up through a pulley and then back down. He didn't think he was strong enough to pull himself up in it. Instead, he tackled a knotted climbing rope and scrunched his body up. The rope swung wildly around the center pole. John looked down and almost lost his grip. It looked twice as far down as it had looked from the ground. He saw all the others, some climbing, others floundering in the water, getting up and starting over. No one was as close to the bell as he was.
He swallowed his fear and kept climbing up. He thought of the ice cream and chocolate brownies and how he was going to win.
John got to the top, grabbed the bell, and rang it three times. He then clasped the steel pole and slid all the way to the ground, falling into a pile of cushions.
He got up and ran smiling all the way to the Chief Petty Officer. John crossed the finish line and gave a victory cry. "I was first," he said, panting.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Now eight years old, John is expected to navigate through Reach's forest/mountain terrain to an extraction point given only a small portion of a map:
"These are portions of maps of the local region. You will be set down by yourselves. You will then navigate to a marked extraction point and we will pick you up there."
John turned his map over. It was just one part of a much larger map----no drop or extraction point marked. How was he supposed to navigate without a reference point? But he knew this was part of the mission, to answer that question on his own.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
It was this mission that cemented Chief as the leader of the Spartans:
The Spartans had trained on Reach for most of their early lives. This was the same forest where CPO Mendez had left them when they were children. With only pieces of a map and no food, water, or weapons, they had captured a guarded Pelican and returned to HQ. That was the mission where John, now the Master Chief, had earned command of the group, the mission that had forged them into a team.
Source: Halo: First Strike
Often during their training exercises, Chief Mendez would often lay out stun mines and have snipers with paint pellets as obstacles for the kids to overcome:
Mendez's exercises often had a twist to them----stun mines on the obstacle course, snipers with paint pellet guns during parade drills.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Four months after his scrap with the ODST marines, Chief and his team play a game of capture the flag against trainers in Mark I power suits. They would emerge victorious where Mendez said a group of two or three platoons of Marines would be needed to succeed:
Floodlights snapped on and illuminated a section of the cavern the size of a football field. In the center stood a concrete bunker. Three men in the primitive Mark I power armor stood on top. Six more stood evenly spaced around the perimeter. A red banner had been planted in the center of the bunker.
"Capture the flag?" Dr. Halsey asked. "Past all that heavy armor?"
"Yes. The trainers in those exoskeletons can run at thirty-two KPH, lift two tons, and have thirty-millimeter minigun mounted on self-targeting armatures----stun rounds, of course. They're also equipped with the latest motion sensors and IR scopes. And needless to say, their armor is impervious to standard light weapons. It would take two or three platoons of conventional Marines to take that bunker."
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Chief's training had taught him to acknowledge that he's afraid and then push it to the side and continue on:
The Master Chief got scared all the time. He never showed it, though. He usually mentally acknowledged the apprehension, put it aside, and continued . . . just as he'd been trained to do.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Chief was given an education that he never thought possible at his old school:
John knew more things, thanks to Deja, than he ever thought he could have learned at his old school: algebra and trigonometry, the history of a hundred battles and kings. He could string a trip line, fire a rifle, and treat a chest wound. Mendez had shown him how to be strong . . . not only with his body, but strong with his head, too.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Spartans had been trained to fight in zero gee gravity:
The Spartans had trained to fight in zero gravity. It wasn't easy.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
During his training, Chief had learned to ignore pain and banish discomfort:
His skin itched and stung, a side effect of the cryo gases, but he quickly banished the pain from his awareness. He had long ago learned how to disassociate himself from physical discomfort.
Source: Halo: The Flood
Chief's been trained to use first aid, and has done so on himself and injured comrades before:
He dug into his equipment pack and drew out his med kit. The Spartan had been wounded before, and had on several occasions performed first aid on injured comrades and himself.
Source: Halo: The Flood
Chief is certified to fly almost all UNSC ships and spacecraft:
The Master Chief had never flown one of the attack ships before, but he was qualified to fly most of the UNSC's atmospheric and spacegoing ships so. . .
Source: Halo: The Flood
Another Spartan-II, Joshua, is confident that a company of Spartans can handle one hundred to one odds and even five hundred to one with the right kind of planning and support:
"I'm all for a good fight, Fred, but those odds are a little lopsided even for us . . . like ten thousand to one."
"We can handle a hundred to one," Joshua chimed in, "maybe even five hundred to one with a little planning and support, but against those odds, a frontal assault seems----"
"It's not going to be a frontal assault," Fred said.
Source: Halo: First Strike
Each Spartan from the Spartan-II program had been trained to the pinnacle of military science:
Each Spartan----selected from an early age and trained to the pinnacle of military science----had undergone multiple augmentation procedures: biochemical, genetic, and cybernetic.
Source: Halo: First Strike
(Halo - Blood Line #01) Iona, the AI of Long Time Coming, notes that the SPARTAN-IIs Back Team moves with preternatural quickness and enacted a solution as soon as they encountered a problem with no debate or discussion:
(Halo - Bloodline #03) One of the training exercises the Spartans had to perform when they were younger was fighting each other with large staffs while balancing on logs inside a pool. Now Chief isn't pictured in the scan but it makes sense for all of the Spartans to undergo the same training and exercises, so what Black Team trained in Blue Team also trained in:
Chief and the other Spartans fought the Covenant for three decades (credit to Dottiestmoon) :
For three decades, this Spartan would battle against the Covenant, eventually making the critical discovery of Halo and tipping the scales in humanity's favor.
-- Halo 4 Essential Visual Guide
Chief is proficient in all aspects of infantry tactics and is well versed in aerospace combat also (credit to Dottiestmoon) :
Though proficient in all aspects of infantry tactics as well as the basics of aerospace combat, John-117's most notable skill is his ability to effectively and efficiently direct operational detachments ranging in size from fireteams to battalions.
-- Halo 5 Team Dossiers
Chief uses his Sidearm and fires three shots, headshotting a Jackal and two Grunts:
Service Record/Accomplishments
While talking to Spartan Locke, Arbiter Thel 'Vadam says that Master Chief is the "greatest of your clan", meaning he is the best Spartan:
"Yet now you hunt another Spartan. The greatest of your clan."
Source: Halo 5: Guardians
Not really a feat for the Chief, but during the attack on Reach, four Spartan deaths during a single mission had never happened before on one single mission:
It could have been much worse---but four dead was bad enough. No Spartan operation had ever seen so many killed in one mission, and this op had barely begun.
Source: Halo: First Strike
According to Zuka 'Zamamee, Master Chief was personally responsible for over a thousand Covenant soldiers' deaths, even by 2552 (the first Halo game):
"The human who inflicted this wound was a warrior so capable that he represents a danger to the entire battle group. An individual who, if our records can be believed, is personally responsible for the deaths of more than a thousand of our soldiers."
Yayap felt his knees start to give. "By himself, Your Excellency?"
"Yes."
Source: Halo: The Flood
Before even the fall of Reach, Chief has been awarded every major service medal award except the Prisoner of War Medallion, and this was before even the Covenant attacked Reach:
She reexamined his Career Service Vitae. He had fought in 207 ground engagements against the Covenant, and been awarded every major service medal except the Prisoner of War Medallion.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
By August 27, 2552, Chief and the Spartan-IIs were commended for having the best operational record of any unit of the UNSC fleet:
The Spartans stood at attention and saluted. Keyes returned their salute. "At ease," he said. He escorted Dr. Halsey to the center stage. He sat while she stood at the podium.
"Good evening, Spartans," she said. "Please take your seats."
As one, they sat down.
"Assembled here tonight," she said, "are all surviving Spartans save three, who are otherwise engaged on fields of combat too distant to be easily recalled. In the last decade of combat there have been only three KIAs and one Spartan too wounded to continue active duty. You are to be commended for having the best operational record of any unit in the fleet."
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
On Alpha Halo, Chief was praised as having more medals than the entire general staff of the Pillar of Autumn that had crash landed on the ring:
"In the meantime, we need every warrior we have----especially those who have more medals than the entire general staff put together."
Source: Halo: The Flood
On Alpha Halo, when Chief commandeered a Banshee and flew it onto the Pillar of Autumn, Elites in command believed it impossible that he himself was a big threat and had taken out the whole Security Team Three and was making his way through the ship, taking out all Covenant and Flood in his way:
"So," 'Ontomee began lamely, "it seems that a human crashed a Banshee into the side of the ship, and is now on board."
A veteran named 'Kasamee frowned. "'A human'? As in, a single human? With respect, Excellency, one human more or less will hardly make a difference."
'Ontomee swallowed. "Yes, well, normally I would agree with you, except that this human is somewhat unusual. First, because he wears special armor, second, because it appears that he's on some sort of mission, and third, because he single-handedly killed every member of Security Team Three, which had responsibility for the command and control deck."
[...]
"One human accomplished all that?" 'Kasamee demanded incredulously. "That hardly seems possible."
"Yes," 'Ontomee agreed, "but he did."
Source: Halo: The Flood
UNSC Command never sends Spartans on "easy" jobs:
Spartans were used to tough missions; UNSC High Command never sent them on any "easy" jobs.
Source: Halo: First Strike
Admiral Hood tells Colonel Ackerson that the Spartan-IIs have more confirmed kills than any three divisions of ODST soldiers, garnered every citation the UNSC has to offer, and have saved the Admiral's life twice:
Admiral Hood set his jaw. "Doctor Halsey," he said slowly and with deliberate control, "and her Spartans deserve the utmost respect, Colonel." He turned to face him, but Hood stared through Ackerson. "And if you wish to keep your newly acquired position on the Security Council, you will show them that respect, or I will personally kick you from here to Melbourne."
"I merely----" Ackerson said.
"Those 'freaks'", Hood said over his protest, "have more confirmed kills than any three divisions of ODSTs and have garnered every major citation the UNSC awards. Those 'freaks' have personally saved my life twice, as well as the lives of most of the senior staff here at HighCom."
Source: Halo: First Strike
Master Chief was able to insert onto the planet Circinius IV, engage the Covenant forces attacking the planet, and save a handful of cadets and get them off planet before it was glassed. These are all the scenes with him in it:
Before meeting the Flood, Chief had to fight his way through a swamp and into a compound, facing off against Covenant forces outside and inside. He then went on to fight through the Flood infested compound to get back to the surface after arriving in Alpha Halo. The videos are just to showcase how much Flood he had to fight and what different kinds. Most of them were just the bulbous kind that infected a person, but other "combat forms" were the more humanoid ones that could use weaponry (human or Covenant) and had the strength to knock him over and almost drain his shields in one hit:
The thing's right arm was still functional, however. A twisting column of tentacles burst from the creature's right wrist and he could hear the bones inside break as they forced its right hand roughly aside.
The tentacle flashed out, crackled like a whip and hurled the Master Chief to the floor. His shields were almost completely drained from the single blow.
Source: Halo: The Flood
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxgDyKw7B20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcsUYFz00Tc
Upon landing on Alpha Halo, or Installation 00, Chief would have to subsequently fight through scores of Covenant (Jackals, Grunts, Elites, and Hunters), sometimes with help of other Marines, but most of the time by himself. He would then go on to fight both the Covenant and the Flood, the parasitic beings that were being held on Halo. After being "traveling" with 343 Guilty Spark, Chief would then learn that Halo is a weapon that would wipe out all life in the galaxy if activated. To prevent that, Chief infiltrated a Covenant battlecruiser, fought off more of the Flood and Covenant, and started an overload sequence on the UNSC ship Pillar of Autumn, which would destroy the ring and the Flood. He would then manage to escape on a Longsword with a few other survivors. Below are the cutscenes from Halo: Combat Evolved from the new Master Chief Collection. CAUTION: It's over an hour long:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32wp-gaRX8Q
Chief fights two Hunters all by himself and comes out victorious (08:26 to 09:17):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5Wsrntw8nI
Master Chief fends off the Covenant and Flood again, this time when the two factions reach Earth. During the time, he clears out a city full of Covenant, infiltrates the Prophet of Regret's chamber and assassinates him, fights through Covenant forces and later more of the Flood on High Charity, and hitches a ride back to Earth of the Prophet of Regret's ship. NOTE: video is over 2 hours long:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jmVEvJoBDE
Chief, along with the Arbiter and a small team of Elites, fights his way through a Flood infested city to make his way to Cortana:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov9Dy68DOLE
Upon crash landing in New Mombassa after getting shot down by a Scarab, Chief and a few Marines fight their way through horde after horde of Covenant soldiers (Grunts, Jackals, Elites, Drones, and Hunters) and eventually drive a Warthog and engage and defeat multiple Covenant in Ghosts and Shades, Covenant cannon emplacements (mute the video so that you don't have to hear the guy talking):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cuBDN7WSOY
Fighting through many Covenant forces, Banshees, and Regret's personal Elite guards, Chief kills the Prophet of Regret:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iThHgvn6NrY
Right after the events of Halo 2, Chief lands in the forests of eastern Africa and meets up with Arbiter, Johnson, and a few other Marines, and manages to fight through Covenant forces to reach a UNSC base. Upon doing so, a Flood infested ship enters Earth's atmosphere and lands in a nearby city. Chief engages, stops the spread of the infection, and then follows the Prophet of Truth to the Ark, a Forerunner installation that can act as a remote control to trigger all the other Halos. After more Flood arrive, Chief and the Arbiter fight through them and into where Truth is located, eventually defeating his guards and stopping the Ark's activation. Chief then decides to rescue Cortana, infiltrating the Flood infested Covenant ship High Charity and using her to activate the new Halo being built:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmXEiDqjjj8
Four years after the events in Halo 3 that saw the Master Chief trapped aboard half of Forward Unto Dawn with Cortana, the Chief is awoken to the sound of alarms going off and finds that a Covenant force that had broken off from the main army had found them. Not knowing of the events that happened towards the end of the war, the Elites, Jackals, and Grunts all saw Chief as an enemy. He had to quickly shrug off being in cryo sleep for four years and battle the numerous forces that invaded the ship. After defeating the dropship worth of soldiers, the Chief heads outside the ship to fight more Covenant, this time with low gravity. He then manually activates the missiles to destroy the Covenant cruiser an then is sucked into a portal taking him to the planet Requiem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1_9S-4mkk4&t=4s
Chief lands in a ship graveyard, makes his way to an abandoned Warthog and drives it to locate a suitable ship to take them off-planet. Chief then fights more Elites, Grunts, and Jackals, with some of them riding in Ghosts, some operating Shade turrets, and some Jackals equipped with snipers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baH_As0zlbk
After reuniting with Blue Team, Chief and his fellow Spartans invade the space station Argent Moon to discover that it's been overrun by Covenant, and the Chief has to fight off Jackals, Grunts, Elites, and even two different groups of Hunters before he sets the station to override and escapes in a Pelican dropship:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh6flvefc5M
After Chief and the rest of Blue Team are transported to a Forerunner world called Genesis. Here, they fight through both Covenant and Forerunner forces, made up of Jackals, Grunts, Elites, Promethean Soldiers and Crawlers, ultimately leading to the team's first encounter with Warden Eternal. After commandeering enemy Phaetons and fighting their way through more Forerunner forces, the Chief finds and enters a Forerunner Domain gateway:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agyD0faELPE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l63h6qTAUss
As the Chief and his team makes their final way to Cortana, the Warden manages to break his hold from her and attack the them, using three bodies to try and kill them. Chief would use Incineration Cannons scattered around the area to help take out all three of Warden's bodies despite the whole team having trouble with his main, one body earlier:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm0PF8diq4E
Chief is so well respected in the UNSC that Spartan Buck tells Locke that if they go after and arrest Chief for "deserting", every soldier and every Spartan will hate them. Spartan Locke then tells Buck that he's not the only one here because of John, most likely indicating that Locke along with other Spartan-IVs all volunteered for the program because of Master Chief:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4ZoRYbpvGQ
Chief has saved the human race twice now, from the Covenant and most recently from the Didact:
In reality, he became the salvation of the human race itself not once, but twice. First, in the face of an alien hegemony called the Covenant----an alien empire bent on the complete destruction of humanity in order to assure their ascendance into misguided godhood. Most recently, John defended humanity against the efforts of an ancient Forerunner called the Didact, who returned to exact his revenge against humanity for wars fought a hundred millennia before.
Source: http://www.halowaypoint.com
Speed/Reactions
Chief dodges a plasma bolt:
Explosive needles bounced off the Chief's armor, detonating as they hit the ground. He saw the flash of a plasma bolt----side stepped----and heard the air crackle where he had stood a split second before.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Chief rolls out of the way of Banshee plasma fire:
The fire got the aliens' attention, however. Lances of fire slashed from the Banshees' gunports.
The Chief dove and rolled to his feet. Sandstone exploded where he had stood only an instant before.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Chief runs up a half-kilometer long uphill slope (500 meters) in thirty two seconds:
The Chief and his team sprinted up the half-kilometer sandstone slope in thirty two seconds flat.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Chief covers 20 meters (about 65 feet) in seconds on foot:
The Spartan took a deep breath, hit the switch, spun on his heel, and ran.
It was about twenty meters back to the Shade, and the Chief covered the distance in seconds.
Source: Halo: The Flood
Chief dodges point-blank stun round fire outside of his armor:
The last guard on the bunker turned to fire at John. Halsey gripped the edge of the chair. "He's at point-blank range! Even stun rounds can kill at that distance!"
As the guard's gun fired, John sidestepped. The stun rounds slashed through the air, a clean miss.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
After hitting a leather ball attached to the floor and ceiling by a thick elastic band, Chief comments that it looks like the ball was underwater:
John worked every machine, then moved to a speed bag, a leather ball attached to the floor and ceiling by a thick elastic band. There were only certain allowed frequencies at which the bag could be hit, or it gyrated chaotically.
His fist jabbed forward, cobra-quick, and struck. The speed bag moved, but slowly, like it was underwater . . . far too slowly considering how hard he had hit it.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Chief Mendez tells Halsey that the Spartans' reaction times are almost impossible to chart and that they double during combat:
"What are their reaction times?"
"Almost impossible to chart. We estimate it at twenty milliseconds," Mendez replied. He shook his head, then added, "I believe it's significantly faster in combat situations when their adrenaline is pumping."
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Chief's reactions under stress are one-sixth the human norm:
His reaction time under stress was one-sixth the standard human norm.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
And as a Spartan-II, the Chief thought and reacted faster than a normal human in times of stress:
Enhanced senses and augmented physiology meant that in periods of stress Spartans thought and reacted faster than a normal human.
Source: Halo: First Strike
With Cortana in his suit, Chief explains that an ODST soldier, the best of the best when it comes to Marines, moves in slow motion:
John spun to face the left-flank gunner, assault rifle leveled at the man's head instantly. He had the man in his sights, but he still had time----the soldier was not quite in position. To John's enhanced senses, amped up by Cortana and the neural interface, the rifleman seemed to be moving in slow motion. Too slow.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Chief dodges gunfire, dives down from a platform, and lands amid a group of soldiers before they can adjust their aim:
The Master Chief blurred into motion. He dove from the activation platform and----before the soldiers could adjust their aim----landed in their midst.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Chief moves faster than a soldier can react:
Before the soldier could react, the Master Chief sidestepped and slammed his own rifle down----hard.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Here John showcases his reflexes and agility, jumping from pole to pole and never losing his balance. The poles were ten meters tall, made of wood, and only ten centimeters in diameter:
He climbed the first pole and balanced on top. He leaped to the next pole, teetered, regained his balance----then jumped to the next. His reflexes had to be perfect; he was landing a half ton of man and armor on a wooden pole ten centimeters in diameter.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
While running through a field of landmines, Chief moves so fast that he leaves the effects of the mine she triggers in his wake:
The Master Chief got up and ran through the shattered remains of the poles. Napalm and sonic grenades popped around him, but he moved so fast he left the worst of the damage in his wake.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
With help from Cortana, Chief times and deflects a Scorpion missile fired at him, managing to deflect it away from him at the very last second:
The Skyhawk was back and starting its run straight toward him.
Even with his augmented speed, even with the MJOLNIR armor----he'd never make it to the bell in time. He'd never make it alive.
He turned to face the incoming jet.
"I'll need your help, Cortana," he said.
"Anything," she whispered. The Master Chief heard nervousness in the AI's voice.
"Calculate the inbound velocity of a Scorpion missile. Factor in my reaction time and the jet's inbound speed and distance at launch, and tell me the instant I need to move to sidestep and deflect it with me left arm."
Cortana paused a heartbeat. "Calculations done. You did say 'deflect'"?
"Scorpion missiles have motion-tracking sensors and proximity detonators. I can't outrun it. And it won't miss. That leaves us very few options."
The Skyhawk dove.
"Get ready," Cortana said. "I hope you know what you're doing."
"Me, too."
Smoke appeared from the jet's left wingtip and fire and exhaust erupted as a missile streaked toward him.
The Master Chief saw the missile track back and forth, zeroing in on his coordinates. A shrill tone in his helmet warbled----the missile had a guidance lock on him. He chinned the a control and the sound died out. The missile was fast. Faster than he was ten times over.
"Now!" Cortana said.
They moved together. He shifted his muscles and the MJOLNIR----augmented by his link to Cortana----moved faster than he'd ever moved before. His leg tensed and pushed him aside; his left arm came up and crossed his chest.
The head of the missile was the only thing he saw. The air grew still and thickened.
He continued to move his hand, palm open in a slapping motion----as fast as he could will his flesh to accelerate.
The tip of the Scorpion missile passed a centimeter from his head.
He reached out----fingertips brushed the metal casing----
----and slapped it aside.
The Skyhawk jet screamed over his head.
The Scorpion missile detonated.
Pressure slammed through his body. The Master Chief flew six meters, spinning end over end, and landed flat on his back.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Chief runs half a kilometer (roughly half a mile) in 17 seconds, on a torn Achilles tendon:
He could feel his Achilles tendon tear, but he didn't slow. He crossed the half-kilometer stretch in seventeen seconds flat and skidded to halt.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Chief takes out ODSTs before they can react, despite one of them sneaking up on him:
The Master Chief's reflexes are "unmatched" (credit to Dottiestmoon):
His reflexes are unmatched, his strength and endurance quite unlike any other human and his tenacity molded by a lifetime of conscripted military training. The Master Chief is proficient in all current ballistic weapons and tactics, incursion, and unarmed combat, and has extensive experience with Covenant military tech.
-- Halo 2 Game Manual
Strength
At 14 years old, Chief says a twenty kilogram dumbbell set felt "too light" for him and that a 40 kilogram (88 lbs.) one felt just right. He did this under the effects of one gee of gravity:
John started with arm curls. He went to the center section, calibrated at one gee, and picked up a twenty-kilogram dumbbell. It felt wrong----too light. The spin must be off. He set he weights down and picked up a forty-kilogram set. That felt right.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
The augmentation that the Spartans went through left thirty of the candidates dead and another dozen unfit for combat, however Chief survived just fine:
There were only thirty-two other soldiers left in his squad. Thirty candidates had "washed out" of the Spartan program; they died during the augmentation process. The other dozen, suffering from side effects of the process, had been permanently reassigned within the Office of Naval Intelligence.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Chief, when he was still a kid around 12 years old, was able to hold on to the bottom of a jeep for about a kilometer and endure being pelted in his face by the gravel underneath:
John ran from the brush and crawled under the vehicle. He pulled himself up and wedged tight against the undercarriage, close enough that he smelled the rubber from the new tires. Kelly and Sam came next; Fhajad was last.
They hadn't been spotted. So far, so good.
The two men got back into the truck and proceeded down the dirt road.
Gravel bounced up and caught John in the side of the head, and cut him; blood trickled from his ear along his neck, but he didn't dare loosen his grip.
After a kilometer of being pelted by rocks and stung by sand, the truck eased to a halt at Tango Company's base.
Source: Halo: First Strike
Chief engages four men in a boxing ring (three at the same time), and ends up killing two of them and sending two others to the hospital:
The big ODST pushed through the ropes and the others gathered to watch. "I'm going to rip you to pieces, meat," he grunted through clenched teeth.
John sprang off his back foot and launched his entire weight behind his first strike. His fist smashed into the man's wide chin. John's left hand followed and impacted on the soldier's jaw.
The man's hands came up; John stepped in, pinned one of the man's arms to his chest, and followed through with a hook to his floating ribs. Bones broke.
The man staggered back. John took a short step, brought his heel down on the man's knee. Three more punches and the man was against the ropes . . . then he stopped moving, his arm and leg and neck tilted at unnatural angles.
The three other men moved. The one with the bloody nose grabbed an iron bar.
John didn't need orders this time. Three attackers at once----he had to take them out before they surrounded him. He might be faster, but he didn't have eyes in the back of his head.
The man with the iron bar swung a vicious blow at John's ribs; John sidestepped, grabbed the man's hand, and clamped it to the bar. He twisted the bar and crushed the bones of his attacker's wrist.
John snapped a side kick toward the second man, caught him in the groin, crushing the soft organs and breaking his target's pelvis.
John pulled the bar free----whipped around and caught the third man in the neck, hitting him so hard the ODST was propelled over the ropes.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
(Halo - Helljumper #01) When the story leaked to an ODST who was friends with one of the men who died, he described the fight as Chief beating on the men like they were sacks of meat instead of trained fighters and that some of them died before they even realized it:
In one of his first tests in his first MJOLNIR armor before having it upgraded by Halsey, Chief was able to shatter concrete walls with his punches, jump over three meter high walls, throw knives so hard they were embedded to the handles, and be basically bulletproof to average bullet rounds without shields:
John focused his mind on motion. He leaped over a 3 meter-high wall. He punched at concrete targets----shattering them. He threw knives, sinking them up to their hafts into the target dummies. He slid under barbed wire as bullets zinged over head. He stood, and let rounds deflect off the armor. To his amazement, he actually dodged one or two of the rounds.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Chief kicks a trainer in a Mark I power suit eight meters away:
John landed, braced, and kicked one guard. The man landed in a heap . . . eight meters away.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Chief hits an armored soldier with an open palm and caves in his ribs:
John launched an openhanded strike at the man's chest. The Marine's ribs caved in and he dropped without a sound, blood flowing from his mouth.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Chief has the strength to bend an MA5B's barrel by kicking it:
John kicked the discarded rifle, bending the barrel and rendering the weapon useless.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Chief hits a soldier with the butt of a rifle, snaps the soldier's neck, and sends him flying in a backwards somersault:
The Master Chief lashed out with the rifle butt again. The trooper's head snapped back from the sudden, powerful blow. He flipped head over tail and slammed into the ground. John sized the man's condition up with a practiced eye: shock, concussion, fractured vertebrae.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Chief was able to carry another Spartan-II, James, over his shoulder for what would have been a few miles back to his LZ:
The Spartans moved toward the coast and followed the treeline south. James collapsed twice along the way and then finally slumped into unconsciousness. Master Chief slung him over his shoulder and carried him.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Chief caves in a Grunt's skull by hitting it with the butt of his pistol:
He sidestepped and slammed the butt of the pistol into the Grunt's head. The alien's skull caved in.
Source: Halo: The Flood
Chief breaks two Elites' spines by hitting them in the back:
He crept on a pair of Elites who stood guard near a Banshee. They went down from deadly, spine-cracking blows and he stepped past their fallen corpses.
Source: Halo: The Flood
Chief crushes the head of an Elite with his fist:
Once again the Spartan made use of a grenade to even the odds----then crushed the head of an Elite with his fist. The alien's head was turned to pulp and its body collapsed like a puppet with no strings.
Source: Halo: The Flood
Chief pulls open heavy doors to make room for him to fit through:
Five seconds elapsed, and a flash filled the hallway. The Chief moved back to the doors. They shone mirror-bright where the grenade had detonated but were otherwise unharmed.
A hundred grenades wouldn't have blasted through these doors----but when Covenant plasma grenades detonated, they disrupted electronics and shielding. The Chief dug his gauntleted fingers into the door crack----hoping that the disruption had knocked out the motors and shielding keeping these doors closed.
He braced himself and tried to pull the doors apart at the seams. They slid a few centimeters, then ground to a halt. The Chief adjusted his footing and strained at them again, but the doors remained frozen in place.
[...]
The Chief slung his rifle, grabbed the doors, flexed, pulled----and this time the heavy metal moved.
A flash of plasma fire washed over his shields, blinding him. He ignored it, closed his eyes, and continued to force his way through the door. Another plasma shot struck him in the chest.
The doors were half a meter apart----good enough.
Source: Halo: First Strike
Chief grapples with an Elite that's wielding an energy sword for a prolonged period of time, even after the text makes note that he was fatigued from fighting every day on Halo and could feel "every strained tendon". The Chief's shields malfunctioned before the fight, and towards the end of the grapple, the Elite's energy sword cut it's way into his armor, yet he still held on and matched the alien's strength with his own, even depleting its own energy shield and denting its breastplate with a kick:.
The Chief caught a motion in his peripheral vision: An Elite in jet-black armor materialized from the wall display, its lightbending camouflage dissolving. It strode toward the Chief, roaring a challenge.
The Chief's rifle snapped up, and he squeezed the trigger. Three rounds spat from the muzzle, then the bolt locked open. The ammo counter read 00----empty.
The shots flared at the Elite's shielding; a lucky round penetrated and deformed its shoulder. Purple-black blood spattered on the deck, but it shrugged off the wound and kept coming.
Haverson charged into the room and leveled his pistol. "Hold it!" yelled, and thumbed off the weapon's safety.
The Elite drew a plasma pistol and fired at the Lieutenant----but never took its eyes off the Chief.
Haverson cursed and scrambled out of the room as the plasma charge slashed at him.
The Chief altered his grip on the rifle and crouched in a low fighting stance. Even with his shield malfunction, he was confident he could take a single Elite.
The Elite removed its helmet and dropped it. The plasma pistol clattered to the deck a moment later. It leaned forward, and its mandibles parted in what the Chief guessed had to be a smile. It moved closer, and blue-white blade of energy flashed to life in its hands.
The Elite raised the energy blade and charged.
The Master Chief ducked as the hissing energy blade slashed at him. He dived toward the Elite and slammed the butt of his rifle into the alien's midsection.
The Elite doubled over, and the Chief brought the rifle butt down to smash the alien's skull----
But the Elite rolled back. There was a blur of motion as the energy blade lashed out and neatly bisected the assault rifle. The two halves of the wrecked MA5B clattered to the deck.
The blade of crackling white-hot energy narrowly missed the Chief. The MJOLNIR's internal temperature skyrocketed.
He couldn't risk dancing at this range, so the Master Chief did the last thing the creature expected: He stepped closer and grabbed its wrists.
The bands of muscle on the Elite's arms were iron hard, and it struggled to free itself from the Chief's grasp. The Chief wrenched the alien's sword arm and forced the blade away----but this took most of his strength, and he had to weaken his grasp on the Elite's other hand.
The energy blade blurred perilously close to the Chief's head. It missed by a fraction of a centimeter and sent a wash of static across his heads-up display.
The blade was a flattened triangle of white-hot plasma, contained in an electromagnetic envelope that emanated from its hilt. The Chief had seen such weapons slice battle-armored ODSTs in half and gouge gaping wounds in Titanium-A armor plating.
Worse, this Elite was tough, cunning, well trainee----and it hadn't spent days fighting nonstop on Halo. The Chief felt every wound, pulled muscle, and strained tendon in his body.
Haverson and Polaski moved onto the bridge, their pistols drawn, but neither of them had a clear line of fire.
"Move, Chief!" Haverson shouted. "Damn it, we've got no shot!"
Easier said than done. If he let go, the Elite would cut him in two.
The Master Chief grunted, struggling to turn the Elite.
The alien fought back for a moment, then----instead of resisting----lurched back, right into the path of the Chief's advancing teammates.
The Elite flicked the angle of its blade flat so the arc of energy whipped toward Haverson and Polaski.
Haverson screamed and fell to the ground as the energy blade sliced through his pistol and across his chest. Polaski cursed and fired a single shot, but it glanced off the Elite's shield.
The alien glanced at the source of the fire and growled in its guttural, warbling tongue.
"Get the Lieutenant out of here," the Master Chief barked. He raised his knee to his chest and lashed out with a straight kick. His boot connected with the Elite's breastplate. The alien's energy shield flared, then faded, and its breastplate cracked like porcelain beneath the force of the blow.
The alien staggered back, dragging the Master Chief with it. It coughed up purple-black blood that smeared John's visor, obscuring his vision. Its foot struck something on the ground----the alien's fallen helmet----and it lost its footing.
Together they crashed to the ground.
The Master Chief kept his grip on the Elite's sword arm. The alien's other hand, however, wrenched free and grabbed the fallen plasma pistol. The weapon's muzzle charged with a sickly green energy.
The Chief rolled to his right as the pistol discharged. A globe of plasma arced across the compartment and splashed over the displays behind him.
The instruments flickered, then flashed and sparked as the energy bolt melted their systems. Before the displays went dark, however, the Master Chief saw one of the Covenant cruisers open fire. A lance of plasma rushed through space toward the flagship.
The Chief and the Elite struggled, rising to their feet. The Chief batted the plasma pistol aside, and it clattered across the control center.
The Elite's mouth opened, and it snapped at the Chief. It was angry or panicking now . . . and he felt it getting stronger.
His grasp on the alien loosened.
There was motion behind the Elite; Sergeant Johnson and Locklear still struggled to get their hatch open more than a crack.
"Sergeant----prepare to fire!"
"Ready, Master Chief!" the Sergeant cried from the other side of the hatch.
The Chief tightened his grip on the Elite's sword arm, shoved his forearm into the alien's throat and drove it backward, across the bridge. He slammed the creature into the partially opened hatch.
The energy blade cut into the Master Chief's armor, boiling through the alloy that protected his upper arm.
"Sergeant, now! Fire!"
Gunfire exploded from the hatch, oddly muffled because the rounds impacted directly into the Elite's back. The alien snarled and contorted, but it held on to the Master Chief. The alien warrior sawed the blade deeper, cutting through the tough crystalline layers of the MJOLNIR armor. Hydrostatic gel oozed from the wound . . . mixed with the Chief's blood.
"Keep. Shooting."
A bullet hole appeared through the Elite's broken chestplate----bits of shattered armor and torn flesh spattered over the Chief.
The Master Chief slammed the Elite into the bulkhead, and a control panel behind the alien sparked. The door to the escape corridor hissed open, and the creature reeled back.
The alien was off balance, and the Chief finally had leverage. He bulled the Elite backward and hammered its arm into the wall. The alien metal rang like a gong, and the Elite dropped its energy sword. The blade guttered and went dark as its fail-safes permanently disabled the weapon.
The Chief forced the alien back, step by step. The deck was slippery with blood. Finally he twisted the Elite to the right and launched a powerful open-handed strike into the alien's wounded chest.
The Elite howled in pain and flew back, through the open hatch of an escape pod.
"Get off this ship," the Chief said. He hit a control stud and the hatch slammed shut. There was a sharp, metallic bang as the locking clamps released. The pod screamed away from the hull.
Source: Halo: First Strike
Chief uses wrestling moves to break free of a choke grip a Brute had him in. He was already close to losing consciousness as well as the power in his shields but was able to pin the Brute's arm behind his back after freeing himself and then planted a grenade in the creature's belt that killed him. I'll mark on the scans where to start and stop reading (credit to Dottiestmoon):
Chief flips a Warthog back over. A Warthog is a military jeep with a mounted machine gun on the back, and weighs around 3.25 tons:
The Master Chief took the AI's advice and decided to ride rather than walk. The Warthog that had been tucked under the dropship's belly had come loose during the final moments of fight, hit the ground, and flipped over on its side. He approached the vehicle, reached upward, got a good purchase, and pulled. Metal creaked as the 'Hog swayed, tilted in the Spartan's direction, and started to fall. He stepped back, waited for the inevitable bounce, and climbed up behind the wheel.
Source: Halo: The Flood
-- Halo 2 Game Manual
After being inserted onto Delta Halo via Helljumper pods, Chief is able to kick the pod door so hard that it is sent flying off its hinges and crashes into a rock a few feet away:
Chief is able to kill a Jackal by hitting him through his shield, overpowering the shield in the process:
This is despite a Jackal's energy shield being able to withstand constant assault rifle fire from close range:
Chief is able to rip off and carry a Heavy Machine Gun Turret:
He also does this earlier in his first field test with the MJOLNIR armor:
-- Halo: Fall of Reach, Invasion Issue #01
Chief is able to punch through the floor of the hangar he was in to grab on and save himself from being flown out of the ship:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw7BqEfF4ZM
Chief overpowers another augmented Spartan, Spartan Locke, and holds an advantage over him in H2H:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmFKDvUKbpQ
Chief staggers Atriox with a few punches:
Physicals/Augmentation
Master Chief, along with all the other Spartan IIs, were chemically and physically altered to be the best they could be. They had procedures to enhance their bone strength, making them "virtually unbreakable", increased muscle density and decreased muscle fatigue, an implant for a growth hormone that would allow them to boost their skeletal and muscle growth, procedures to enhance their vision, and an increase in their reflexes, imagination, intelligence, memory, and creativity:
Carbide Ceramic Ossification: Advanced material grafting onto skeletal structures to make bones virtually unbreakable. Recommended coverage not to exceed 3 percent total bone mass because significant white blood cell necrosis. Specific risk for pre- and near-postpubescent adolescents: Skeletal growth spurts may cause irreparable bone pulverization. See attached case studies.
Muscular Enhancement Injections: Protein complex is injected intramuscularly to increase tissue density and decrease lactase recovery time. Risk: 5 percent of test subjects experience a fatal cardiac volume increase.
Catalytic Thyroid Implant: Platinum pellet containing human growth hormone catalyst is implanted in the thyroid to boost growth of skeletal and muscle tissues. Risk: Rare instances of Elephantiasis. Suppressed sexual drive.
Occipital Capillary Reversal: Submergence and boosted blood vessel flow beneath the rods and cones of subject's retina. Produces a marked visual perception increase. Risk: Retinal rejection and detachment. Permanent blindness. See attached autopsy reports.
Superconducting Fibrification of Neural Dendrites: Alteration of bioelectrical nerve transduction to shielded electronic transduction. Three hundred percent increase in subject reflexes. Anecdotal evidence of marked increase in intelligence, memory, and creativity. Risk: Significant instances of Parkinson's Disease and Fletcher's Syndrome. Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
At 14 years old, Chief already had the body of an 18 year old Olympic athlete and the mind of Naval Academy honors graduate:
Fourteen years old and he had the body of an eighteen-year-old Olympic athlete, and a mind the equal of any Naval Academy honors graduate.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
For three weeks after the Spartans' augmentation, they were ordered to eat five high protein meals a day, then went to receive mineral and vitamin injections:
For the last three weeks the Spartans had gone through a daily routine of stretching, isometric exercises, light sparring drills, and lots of eating. They were under orders to consume five high-protein meals a day. After every meal they had to report to the ship's medical bay for a series of mineral and vitamin injections.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Mendez tells Dr. Halsey that her Spartans can run at 55 kph, lift three times their body weight, and see in the dark:
"Your Spartans can run at bursts of up to fifty-five KPH," he explained. "Kelly can run a little faster, I think. They will only get quicker as they adjust to the 'alterations' we've made to their bodies. They can lift three times their body weight----which, I might add, is almost double the norm due to their increased muscle density. And they can virtually see in the dark."
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Spartan-IIs had gone through multiple augmentations such as biochemical, genetic, and cybernetic, and have said to hear a pin drop in a sandstorm:
Each Spartan----selected from an early age and trained to the pinnacle of military science----had undergone multiple augmentation procedures: biochemical, genetic, and cybernetic. As a result, a Spartan could hear a pin drop in a sandstorm, and every Spartan in the room was interested in what the Captain had to say.
Source: Halo: First Strike
When John and the other Spartan IIs were only 12 years old, they already had the physique of a person in their late teens or early twenties:
From a distance they looked like soldiers on field maneuvers. Each was tall, fit, and agile, and looked to be in their late teens or early twenties. Closer observation told a different story. Each Spartan was no more than twelve years old.
Source: Halo: First Strike
Outside of his armor, Chief stands over two meters tall and weighs 130 kilos (around 286 pounds):
It was hard to mistake the Master Chief for anything other than a Spartan. He stood just over two meters tall and weighed in at 130 kilos of rock-hard muscle and iron-dense bone.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
The Librarian, an ancient Foreunner, tells Chief that he is the "culmination of a thousand lifetimes of planning" and that he holds a geneseed inside of him which makes him immune to being transfigured into a Promethean, basically:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylsNFpgy0to
Durability
This section will mostly be covering what the Chief can tank in his armor, as he's rarely outside of it in combat situations.
Chief survives being near ground zero of the explosion of a Skyhawk missile after he himself deflected it:
Chief is shot through a wall, sent sliding ten meters after getting hit with a shot that was strong enough to overpower his Jackal shield, yet got up a few seconds later just fine:
The other massive creature turned to face the Master Chief.
He hit the button on the shield generator on his arm and brought it up just in time----the nearest alien's weapon flashed again.
The air in front of the Master Chief shimmered and exploded----he flew backward, crashing through the wall, and skidded for ten meters before slamming into the wall of the next room.
The Jackal shield generator was white-hot. The Master Chief ripped the melted alien device off and threw it away.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Chief survives a crash landing when he wasn't strapped in at all whereas the other Marines in the lifeboat were strapped in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF4mw1PUNF4
Chief tanks a fuel rod cannon to the chest:
His shield had just begun a recharge cycle, feeding off the armor's capacious power plant, when the pair of Hunter aliens burst from cover and lobbed fire at his position.
The first blast struck him square in the chest and sent him tumbling backward. The second shot was stopped by a thick-trunked tree. A trickle of blood pooled in the corner of his left eye. He shook his head to clear his blurred vision and rolled to his left.
Source: Halo: The Flood
Chief tanks a shot from a Grunt's plasma pistol, which was supposed to be a fatal shot:
Then, just when he thought the battle was done, a Grunt shot him in the back. The audible went off as his armor sought to recharge itself.
[...]
The Grunt, who had been hiding inside an equipment cabinet, froze as the armored alien not only survived what should have been a fatal shot, but turned to face him.
Source: Halo: The Flood
A Flood combat form hits Chief in the head, and Chief notes that the only reason he's still alive is because of the armor:
The problem was that the little world inside the scope was all-consuming----a fact that caused him to let down his guard. The first hint he had that a Flood form had come up behind him was when it whacked the Spartan in the head.
The blow would have killed anyone else, but the armor saved him, and the Chief rolled in the direction of the blow.
Source: Halo: The Flood
Chief takes a hit from a Hunter and doesn't even seem fazed about it, whereas a regular Marine had half the bones in his body shattered:
The distance between the alien and the two Marines had closed by then and they couldn't disengage. The Corporal threw a fragmentation grenade, saw it explode in front of the oncoming monster, and stared in disbelief as the alien kept on coming. The alien charged right through the flying shrapnel, bellowed some sort of war cry, and lowered a gigantic shoulder.
Private Hosky was still firing when the gigantic shield hit him, shattered half the bones in his body, and threw what was left onto the ground.
Source: Halo: The Flood
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whJyZ2J-Ghg
Chief's shields allow him to survive being right next to the detonation of a Banshee Projectile Cannon, which is the same thing as being right next to a detonation of a fuel rod cannon:
Chief is unharmed after crashing a Banshee into the side of a ship:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJDSMSSxWoI
Chief is unfazed by the heat from an explosion as he flies right through the heart of it:
Chief's armor was the main reason he was able to survive a fall from the upper atmosphere, after jumping out of a crashing Covenant ship. One of the Marines notes that he fell 2 kilometers at least:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVzKVuCmakY&t=4s
Chief is able to survive two shots from Guilty Spark, the first one knocking him down and the second one bringing him to his knees. The same shot sent the Arbiter flying back off his feet and was able to kill Sergeant Johnson, albeit not immediately:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELN9p0wYX5E
He survives another fall from the upper atmosphere as he falls to the planet Requiem only to awaken without injury:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Vku_NN1-4o
Chief shrugs off being thrown back dozens of feet by the Didact's telekinetic powers and being slammed into a wall as well as the fall back to the ground:
Chief is able to completely stonewall a swing from Atriox's gravity hammer:
Chief has his wrist twisted and then is slammed by Atriox's Gravity Hammer and sent flying into a landing strut of some sort:
Chief is punched by Atriox and then slammed away by his Gravity Hammer but stays conscious enough to crawl to his empty AI chip:
MJOLNIR Armor
As with all Spartans, Chief wears a special armor called MJOLNIR. This suit cannot be worn by a normal human, for their strength and reactions are too slow to properly use the suit. It grants the wearer enhanced strength (double), speed, reaction times (by a factor of 5), and later versions have an AI slot included in the armor:
The armor reminded John of the exoskeletons he had seen during training, but much less bulky, more compact. He stepped closer to one and saw that the suit actually had many layers; the outer layer reflected the overhead lights with a faint green-gold iridescence. It covered the groin, outer thighs, knees, shins, chest, shoulders, and forearms. There was a helmet and an integrated power pack----much smaller than standard Marine "battery sacks." Underneath were intermeshed layers of matte-black metal.
"Project MJOLNIR," Dr. Halsey said. She snapped her fingers and an exploded holographic schematic of the armor appeared next to her.
"The armor's shell is a multilayer alloy of remarkable strength. We recently added a refractive coating to disperse incoming energy weapon attacks----to counter our new enemies." She pointed inside the schematic. "Each battlesuit also has a gel-filled layer to regulate temperature; this layer can reactively change in density. Against the skin of the operator, there is a moisture-absorbing cloth suit, and biomonitors that constantly adjust the suit's temperature and fit. There's also an onboard computer that interfaces with your standard-issue neural implant."
She gestured and the schematic collapsed so that it only displayed the outer layers. As the image changed, John glimpsed veinlike microcapillaries, a dense sandwich of optical crystal, a circulating pump, even what looked like a miniature fusion cell in the backpack.
"Most importantly," Dr. Halsey said, "the armor's inner structure is composed of a new reactive metal liquid crystal. It is amorphous, yet fractally scales and amplifies force. In simplified terms, the armor doubles the wearer's strength, and enhances the reaction speed of a normal human by a factor of five."
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Halsey would then upgrade John's MJOLNIR armor, saying the one he had been using for ten years mentioned above, was just a fraction of what it was supposed to be. It now has an energy shield:
"This is the real MJOLNIR," Dr. Halsey whispered to him. "What you have been using was only a fraction of what the armor should be. This----" She turned to the Master Chief. "----is everything I had always dreamed it could be. Please put the suit on."
[...]
Although the armor's components were bulkier and heavier than his old suit, once assembled and activated, they felt light as air. The armor was a perfect fit. The biolayer warmed and adhered to his skin, then cooled as the temperature difference between the suit and his skin equalized.
"We've made hundreds of minor technical improvements," she said. "I'll have the specifications sent to you later. Two of those changes, however, are rather serious modifications to the system. It may take . . . some getting used to."
Dr. Halsey's brow furrowed. John had never seen her worried before.
"First," she told him, "we have replicated, and I might add, improved upon the energy shield the Covenant Jackals have been using against us to great effect."
[...]
The Master Chief felt a static charge tingling in his extremities. The glow intensified and his helmet's blast shield automatically dimmed. The charge in the air intensified; his skin crawled with ionization. He smelled ozone.
Then the spinning slowed and the light dimmed.
"Reset the activation button now, Master Chief."
The air around the Master Chief popped----as if it jumped away from the MJOLNIR armor. There was none of the shimmer that normal Covenant shields had. Was it working?
He ran his hand over his arms and encountered resistance a centimeter from the surface of the armor. It was working.
[...]
"It provides full coverage----" Dr. Halsey's voice piped through the speakers. "----and dissipates energy far more effectively than the Covenant shields the Spartans have recovered, though the shield is concentrated on your arms, head, legs, chest, and back. The energy field tapers down to a hair under a millimeter so you don't lose the ability to hold or manipulate items with your hands."
The lead technician activated another control, and new data scrawled across John's display. "There's a segmented bar in the upper corner of your biomonitor and ammunition indicators. It indicates the charge level of your shield. Don't let it completely dissipate; when it's gone, the armor starts taking the hits."
The Master Chief slipped off the platform. He skidded----then came to a halt. His movements felt oiled. His contact with the floor felt tentative.
"You can adjust the bottom of your boot emitters as well as the emitters inside your gloves to increase traction. In normal use, you will want to set these to the minimum level----just be aware that your defenses will be diminished in those locations."
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
His upgraded MJOLNIR armor has an AI interface that allows Cortana to travel with him and aid him in battle:
"There is a new layer sandwiched between the reactive circuits and the inner biolayers of your armor," Dr. Halsey explained. "It is a weave of additional memory-processor super-conductor."
"The same material as an AI's core."
"Yes," Dr. Halsey replied. "An accurate analysis. Your armor will carry Cortana. The MJOLNIR system has nearly the same capacity as a ship-borne AI system. Cortana will interface between you and the suit and provide tactical and strategic information for you in the field."
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Here's a shorter description of the armor:
Twenty-seven Spartans braced themselves and clung to the frame of the ship; they crouched in their MJOLNIR armor to absorb the shock of their rapid descent. Their armor was half a ton of black alloy, faintly luminous green ceramic plates, and winking energy shield emitters. Polarized visors and full helmets made them look part Greek hero and part tank----more machine than human.
Source: Halo: First Strike
As of the events of the first Halo game and the two novels The Fall of Reach and The Flood, the Chief's armor represented the current pinnacle of human technology, has a method to internally regulate temperatures, and can even change its density if needed:
Human soldiers have used performance-enhancing equipment for hundreds of years, and your MJOLNIR battle suit represents the current pinnacle of military technology. As a product of the SPARTAN-II project where you were bio-engineered and technologically enhanced for better reflexes, eyesight and coordination; the addition of your MJOLNIR armor makes you nearly invincible.
The battle suit utilizes a neural interface implanted in your brain. Your armor's movements and weapons are controlled at the speed of your thoughts. The battle suit also contains a layer of crystal that forms a network capable of supporting starship-grade AI so you can overpower alien computer systems if necessary. The suit's shell is compromised of many layers of strong allow, and a refractive coating to disperse energy weapon hits. Internally, the suit regulates temperature and can reactively change in density as necessary.
-- Halo Combat Evolved Game Manual
(Halo - Blood Line #01) Due to the Spartans' enhancements, they were practically all but one with their armor:
With Cortana in his suit, Chief now has even greater enhanced reactions:
"Cortana resides in the interface between your mind and the suit, Master Chief. You will find your reaction time greatly improved."
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
MJOLNIR's helmet shows Chief displays featuring health and motion sensors, suit status indications, and a targeting reticle:
They set the helmet over his head.
Health monitors, motion sensors, suit status indicators pulsed into life. A targeting reticle flickered on the heads-up display.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
The suit's motion sensors can pick up movement at least 40 meters out:
Motion sensors picked up multiple targets approaching down the corridor----forty meters and closing.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
Only Spartans, with their enhanced bones and muscles, can use the suit to its full potential:
Halsey viewed the video away. "Normal humans don't have the reaction time or the strength required to drive this system," she explained. "You do. Your enhanced musculature and the metal and ceramic layers that have been bonded to your skeleton should be enough to allow you to harness the armor's power."
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
With this suit, Chief only has to think of moving and the suit does it for him, and at lightning-fast speeds:
"Listen carefully to me, John," Dr. Halsey said. "I just want you to think, and only think, about moving your arm up to chest level. Stay relaxed."
He willed his arm to move, and his hand and forearm sprang forward to chest level. The slightest motion translated his thought to motion at lightning speed. It had been so fast----if he hadn't been attached to his arm, he might have missed that it had happened at all.
The Spartans gasped.
Sam applauded. Even lightning-fast Kelly seemed impressed.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
All Chief has to do is think of communicating with the other Spartans, and the suit will open up a comm channel to them:
They would have to use the COM channels for the time being.
As soon as he thought of this, his suit tagged and monitored the other MJOLNIR suits. Their standard-issue UNSC neural chip----implanted in every UNSC soldier at induction----identified friendly soldiers and displayed them on their helmet HUDs. But this was different----all he had to do was concentrate on them, and a secure COM channel opened. It was extremely efficient.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
MJOLNIR armor can operate in vacuum for ninety minutes, and is shielded from radiation and EMP:
"Doctor," John asked, "does the MJOLNIR armor operate in vacuum?"
"Of course," she replied. "It was one of our first design considerations. The suit can recycle air for ninety minutes. It's shielded against radiation and EMP as well."
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
(Halo - Blood Line #01) Victor of Black Team echoing that statement:
MJOLNIR armor has sound receivers that can pick up a whisper a hundred meters away:
They had all heard the Captain, however. The sound receivers in their armor cold pick up a whisper at a hundred meters.
Source: Halo: The Fall of Reach
When a Spartan enhances their aural amplification, they can hear even the faint creaks in armor and another Spartan's heartbeat:
They all froze, and Fred strained to hear. There was nothing. Fred turned up his aural amplification to maximum gain. He heard the creak of their armored joints and five faint heartbeats, but other than that, silence.
Source: Halo: First Strike
MJOLNIR armor can also apparently check for radiation levels, seen when Dr. Halsey asked Fred to check to see if a Forerunner artifact had abnormal levels of radiation:
Fred snapped on his heads-up display, and sapphire-blue light filled his vision. They stood before the source of the glow in the middle of the room. There was a pedestal made of the same gold material as the symbols in the corridor, and floating above it was a fist-sized crystal, tapered to a point at either end. It spun, and the facets along its centerline folded and shifted like the pieces of a puzzle.
Dr. Halsey reached for it and then hesitated. "Radiation?" she asked.
Fred checked his counter. "Normal background levels," he reported.
Source: Halo: First Strike
During the attack on Reach in the beginning of the war, Spartan-104, Fred, led a team down to the surface to hold off Covenant forces attempting to destroy the UNSC's ground defensive MAC guns. During the initial flight on the way to the surface, their Pelican dropship is shot down, and Fred notes that with MJOLNIR's energy shield, hydrostatic gel, and reactive circuits, him and his Spartans would probably survive the high-speed crash landing:
"Get ready for a fast drop," Fred shouted. "Grab your gear. Pump your suits' hydrostatic gel to maximum pressure. Suck it up, Spartans----we're landing hard."
"Hard landing" was an understatement. The Spartans----and their MJOLNIR armor----were tough. The armor's energy shields, hydrostatic gel, and reactive circuits, along with the Spartans' augmented skeletal structure, might be enough to withstand a high-speed crash landing . . . but not a supersonic impact.
Source: Halo: First Strike
(Halo - Bloodline #03, #05) When Spartan Black-Two, Roma-143, is shot in the helmet by a Covenant Carbine Rifle, her armor's bio-foam fixed up the injury and allowed her to recover and get back in the fight without having to wait days or weeks to heal her injury. For anyone confused about the scans, Black-Four's HUD and armor had been compromised by 686 Ebulliet Prism, a monitor like 343 Guilty Spark, and tricked him into thinking Black-Two was an Elite:
After the events of Halo 4, Chief's armor is now equipped with thrusters to allow him better and faster maneuverability:
Due to his suit and the Librarian awakening the geneseed in him, Chief is able to survive an EMP-type blast that disintegrated every other human on board the station he was at to dust. He would only be rendered unconscious:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUo4aNLGqYY
As of the events of Halo 4, Chief has certain abilities he can equip to his armor:
-- Halo 4 Field Guide
In his latest armor, we can see the Chief's energy shields tank several shots from a plasma pistol:
Chief would receive numerous upgrades to his armor throughout his campaign against the Banished on Zeta Halo. The first one he found was a Threat Sensor by the armor of Spartan Griffin. The Threat Sensor is a deployable device that highlights and reveals enemies in its range
The Threat Sensor allowed Chief to be able to find Chak 'Lok, a skilled Elite who was using active camo and trying to kill him in a dark room:
Gear
Here's some of the weaponry of the UNSC that Chief is trained in and proficient in. These include Pistols, Sniper Rifles, Rocket Launchers, BR55 Rifles, SMGs, and Shotguns:
And here's some other gear Chief has been known to use in the past, such as Radar Jammers, Trip Mines, Bubble Shields, Power Drainers, and Grav-Lifts (credit to Dottiestmoon):
Miscellaneous
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